Editorial: Potter getting hotter

Friday, July 15, 2005 | 9:33 a.m.

In thinking about the midnight hour as today becomes Saturday, we can think only of Harry Potter, the fictional boy wizard who has captured the imaginations of children around the world. Using our own imaginations, we can hear cymbals crashing at this bewitching hour, signaling to all of the parents and children outside bookstore doors that the fun and frenzy is on. In a magical few moments, all of the stacked and shelved copies of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" will have disappeared -- into the arms of children eager to soak up the book's 672 pages in one sitting.

It's become a fact of popular culture that none of author J.K. Rowling's books about Harry Potter and his parallel world of mystery and adventure can wait for a bookstore's normal opening time. Children and many adults simply cannot wait past the exact authorized moment of sale. Even before a single copy is sold, based on pre-sales, Harry Potter books instantly zoom to No. 1 on best-seller lists. As trends go, this one is a beauty. It's gratifying to see children and their parents together sharing the joy of a good book.

This latest is the sixth in a series of seven books that Rowling will write about the destinies of Harry Potter and friends in a world that expands the imagination with every turn of a page. What power, what creature, what danger -- and what friend, what game, what lesson -- will jump out as the chapters fly by? It's an exciting time for children and their parents as they find out together.